BREAKING OVERNIGHT — ISRAEL LAUNCHES AIRSTRIKES, via Jeffrey Heller of Reuters, from Jerusalem: “Israel bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, striking at Hamas after finding the bodies of three missing teenagers whose abduction and killing it blames on the Palestinian Islamist group. Israel's security cabinet, which held an emergency session late on Monday and was due to meet again on Tuesday, was currently split on the scope of any further action in the coastal enclave and the occupied West Bank, officials said.”

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“The military said aircraft attacked 34 sites, mostly belonging to Hamas, though its statement did not link the strikes to the abductions. Instead, it cited 18 Palestinian [rockets] launched against Israel from Gaza in the past two days which Israeli officials have said Hamas carried out.” http://reut.rs/1jFmGgx

SIREN — OBAMA ORDERS HUNDREDS MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ: Several hundred more U.S. service members have been sent to Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy and the Baghdad International Airport. “These additional personnel arrived in Iraq Sunday and [yesterday] from locations within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement. “Capabilities provided include a detachment of helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles, which will bolster airfield and travel route security.”

The troops are separate from the up to 300 military advisers whose deployment to Iraq was announced last month, our colleague Jeremy Herb reports. And the move “will raise the total number of American troops deployed to Iraq for security and advisory missions to about 750,” according to The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/TLlBNB

THE DECISION COMES AS IRAQ’S AMBASSADOR IS MAKING THE ROUNDS TO CALL FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ HELP. Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Lukman Faily said on CNN last week Iraq doesn’t have the “luxury of waiting” for assistance as it combats Sunni militants ( http://politi.co/1nP07qT). Faily is set to speak again this morning, this time at a 10 a.m. event in Washington hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I anticipate Ambassador Faily will discuss the process of building the country’s new government, efforts for inclusiveness and the demands of the groups involved in this process,” spokeswoman Kristin Roach tells us.

HAPPY JULY 1 AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE. It’s been 151 years to the day since the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg, considered the turning point of the Civil War. Keep sending us your tips, pitches, personnel announcements and other news at awright@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @ abwrig and @ morningdefense

NAVY TO GET ITS FIRST FEMALE FOUR-STAR: Navy Vice Adm. Michelle Howard, set to become the 38th vice chief of naval operations, is being promoted to a four-star admiral at 9:30 a.m. at the Women's Memorial in Arlington. She’ll be the first female four-star in the history of the Navy. Her bio is here: http://1.usa.gov/1qbXu7k. And the promotion ceremony is being livestreamed here: http://1.usa.gov/1aHHEKm

ALSO TODAY — CSIS HOSTS A PANEL ON THE FUTURE OF VERTICAL LIFT: The Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a discussion at 8:30 a.m. in Washington on the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration program, the first stage of the military’s long-term efforts to replace its Apache, Black Hawk and other helicopter fleets. Set to speak: Program Director Dan Bailey, plus top executives from the five competing companies: AVX Aircraft Company, Bell Helicopter, Karem Aircraft and the Sikorsky-Boeing team.

This summer, the Pentagon is expected to select two of the companies to build prototypes of their next-generation helicopters. “Our government guest will be very careful not to give any indication of the way things might go,” says CSIS’s Maren Leed, who’s moderating the panel. “We’re hoping to … raise the profile of the technological developments these companies are putting on the table.” Event details here: http://bit.ly/1z2Z5jX

TOP DOC — DoD UPDATES COUNTER-WMD STRATEGY: The Pentagon is out with an updated version of its 2006 strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction, reports POLITICO’s Philip Ewing. The document outlines four main goals: reducing the incentives to pursue WMDs, increasing the barriers to buy or develop them, managing the risks from terrorists and rogue nations and denying the “effects” of current and emerging threats. Read the strategy here: http://politico.pro/VAOopI

GRAPH OF THE DAY — WAR BUDGET EXPANDS EVEN AS IT SHRINKS: Budget guru Todd Harrison crunched the numbers and created a graph he says shows the Pentagon is shifting costs from its base budget to its supplemental war account, called the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, even as it reduces the overall size of OCO. His chart compares the annual size of the OCO budget each year since fiscal 2005 and the average number of service members deployed each of those years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fiscal years 2005 through 2013 form a trend line, meaning there was a direct relationship between the number of troops deployed each year and the costs of supporting them. Fiscal years 2014 and 2015 fall well above that trend line. “That means they’re including costs in there as related to the war effort that were previously not considered related to the war effort,” says Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. See the chart here: http://politico.pro/1iTvZOV

Why’s this important? It makes clear the Obama administration is expanding the scope of what can be included in the OCO budget, which isn’t restrained by the current budget caps. It also suggests the Pentagon is increasingly evading the caps through its shifting of operations and maintenance costs from its base budget to OCO — using the supplemental fund as a cushion that’ll be hard to give up as the war in Afghanistan winds down.

BREEDLOVE SAYS U.S. SHOULD CONSIDER HALTING ITS EUROPEAN DRAWDOWN, via POLITICO’s Ewing: “The U.S. should consider stopping its military drawdown in Europe and rotating additional units into the region to counter a more assertive Russia, the top U.S. commander there said Monday.”

“Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said Russia’s change from what he called a ‘partner’ to a more aggressive power means American commanders must recalculate the military presence in Europe, especially in light of longstanding U.S. plans to scale back its units and bases following the end of the Cold War.” http://politico.pro/TK860A

INDUSTRY INTEL — MORE EXPORT CONTROL CHANGES UNVEILED, via Andrea Shalal of Reuters: “The U.S. government on Monday published another big batch of changes to export control laws affecting military electronics, and said it was on track to finish reviewing remaining categories for possible streamlining by the end of the year.

“Ken Handelman, deputy assistant secretary of state for defense controls, said the latest changes would shift some less sensitive military electronics and components from the State Department's U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Department's list of commercial items, easing exports of those items while maintaining strict controls on more sensitive technologies.” http://reut.rs/1vqYwfc

MAKING MOVES

— McRAVEN APPROVED FOR RETIREMENT: Adm. William McRaven, head of the Special Operations Command and credited with planning the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has been approved for retirement, according to a notice published in the congressional record. A spokesman declined to provide further details about McRaven’s plans. Last week, President Barack Obama nominated Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Votel, now commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, to succeed McRaven at SOCOM.

— RETIRED ARMY FOUR-STAR JOINS McKENNA LONG & ALDRIDGE: Retired Army Gen. Walter “Skip” Sharp, who commanded U.S. Forces Korea from 2008 to 2011, is joining McKenna Long & Aldridge as a strategic adviser, the law firm announced yesterday. The firm opened an office in Seoul last year. And Sharp’s “presence is certain to be important as we continue raising our profile in other parts of Asia,” says McKenna Chairman Jeff Haidet.

SPEED READ

— A Pentagon spokesman says the Iraqi government’s purchase of Russian attack aircraft does not affect Baghdad’s agreement with the U.S. to buy Lockheed Martin-built F-16 Fighting Falcons or other high-tech equipment. POLITICO Pro: http://politico.pro/1nXD0dT

— A classified 2010 legal certification and other documents show the National Security Agency was granted approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather intelligence “concerning” all but four countries, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1lt4FSu

— Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine discover that they have strong support from babushkas, or grandmothers, with fond memories of living in the Soviet Union. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1lsSntj

— The Senate faces a backlog of 49 nominees for ambassador positions, and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J) says “the backlog is weakening America’s role in the world.” Defense One: http://goo.gl/QtO8Uq

— The Navy is testing a device called “Pandarra Fog” that generates carbon-fiber clouds that absorb or diffuse radar waves from the seekers of missiles and could help to hide ships from incoming attacks. Defense Systems: http://goo.gl/xj4NNn

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Authors:

About The Author

Austin Wright is a senior defense reporter based at the Pentagon covering budget, policy and national security issues. He has been with POLITICO since 2011 and was previously a web producer and author of the widely read newsletter Morning Defense.

Before POLITICO, Wright worked for National Defense magazine, interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education and taught sixth-grade English at Kramer Middle School in Washington.

Wright hails from Richmond, Va., and graduated in 2009 from the College of William and Mary, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Flat Hat. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Leanne, and their dog, Kernel.